SCIE’s guides and resources have been providing valuable advice to care providers for years. I welcome the development of SCIE’s practical training and consultancy services to support improvement and embed good practice.

Martin Green, Chief Executive, Care England

Support with CQC inspections and ratings

SCIE helps social care providers to prepare for a Care Quality Commission inspection, and to respond to a poor rating.

We work with care providers to develop and deliver their improvement plans – either before or after inspection. The improvement plan may be for an individual service, or it may have implications and benefits for the whole care group.

We tailor the support package to each care providers’ requirements. For example, we help with:

Policies and procedures: We review and update your policies and procedures in line with CQC and Care Act requirements. For example we can review safeguarding; decision making (MCA); DoLS; whistleblowing; complaints; behaviour and physical interventions; and codes of practice for staff and volunteers. See more on policies and procedures review

Site visits and evaluation: We evaluate care services including carrying out interviews and workshops with staff and clients, and report on our findings.See more on evaluation

Safeguarding reviews and audits: We review safeguarding policies and procedures, including the criteria for what constitutes an alert, processes for reporting issues, review of near misses, and what has been done as a result of safeguarding reports. We recommend or draft changes to policies, procedures and practice, and also help to establish lead roles for safeguarding, plus internal safeguarding adults boards where required.
See more on safeguarding reviews and audits

Care plans: We review care plans to check for a focus on personalisation, and check that plans are used, and regularly reviewed and updated.

Recruitment processes: We review personnel files to check that there was sufficient evidence to appoint, plus we can review the recruitment process for volunteers.

Training: We run training courses on safeguarding, dementia, MCA, Care Act for staff, managers, volunteers and trustees.See more on training.

Recommendations: We present recommendations to senior managers, chairs and trustees as a written report with clear actions and review process

Our clients

Some of our improvement consultancy clients are outlined below.

Baring Foundation - Arts in Care Homes Open

Funded by a grant from the Baring Foundation, SCIE has curated a digital resource to support care home staff to engage residents in a range of arts activities.

Practical information and examples of practice will give ideas and inspire confidence. There is growing evidence for the contribution arts makes to improving well-being, reducing isolation as well as providing fun and entertainment for people living in care homes.

Friends of the Elderly (FotE) – Care Homes as community hubs Open

SCIE, with support from Think Local Act Personal (TLAP), are working with Friends of the Elderly to carry out exploratory research into the potential for its care homes -and other forms of provision - to be transformed into community hubs that build on local community resources and assets.

The project involves doing an asset-based mapping exercise in a care home based in Surrey. This will be carried out with residents, relatives and local commissioners and service providers to explore the potential for the charity to develop a wider community offer. We are also conducting a review of literature and the work which will help inform the long-term strategic plans of Friends of the Elderly.

As people's needs and communities change, so must services for older people. There is huge potential for Care Homes to become wider resources for the community opening their doors to classes, services clubs and volunteers, benefitting residents and people in the community alike. We are excited to be working with SCIE, our second project together, on this themed approach.

Steve Allen, Chief Executive, Friends of the Elderly

Friends of the Elderly (FotE) – Care provider improvement support (January – September 2016) Open

National Charity and Care Group, Friends of the Elderly (FotE), commissioned Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) to develop and deliver improvement support, with a focus on safeguarding and the Mental Capacity Act.

Over the course of nine months, SCIE worked as part of a project team set up by FotE, with residents, families, staff, managers, volunteers and trustees across the Group to:

systematically review safeguarding practice

update all safeguarding policies and procedures in line with the Care Act, Mental Capacity Act, Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulatory framework and good practice

advise on the use of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards and the Mental Capacity Act

review care plans across the group to ensure they were person-centred and managed risk appropriately

train staff and trustees on good safeguarding practice

review volunteer policies and training to embed safeguarding best practice

establish an internal Safeguarding Adults Sub-Committee

SCIE is also providing ongoing support to staff by operating a Safeguarding Concerns Helpline, independently on behalf of FotE; and conducting an annual review of FotE’s refreshed approach to safeguarding.

Methodology

SCIE consultants used a range of methods including:

review of care plan templates

supporting site visits by the project team to speak with residents, their families, frontline staff and managers about their experiences of safeguarding

phone line to support residents, families and staff in reporting safeguarding concerns

staff survey on the use of care plans

written advice on safeguarding practice and care plans, with clear recommendations on governance, risk management, skills development and processes. This advice was included in the project team’s final report which was presented to the Board and Senior Management Team (SMT).

Impact of SCIE support

FotE contacted SCIE for support following an ‘Inadequate’ Care Quality Commission rating for one of its care homes (The Lawn Residential Care Home) published in January 2016. The improvement programme covered all 14 homes within the Group, and is also supporting improvements in the Group’s eight registered home care services, and its unregulated day care and volunteer led befriending.

As a result of SCIE’s support, FotE has introduced improvements at The Lawn and across the group. For example, they have:

amended the template and process for care planning

updated and rolled out new safeguarding policies and procedures

improved consistency across forms and documents

revised training, supervision and management practices to further embed safeguarding

found new ways to communicate safeguarding issues to service users, family members, advocates and other stakeholders

upgraded their quality monitoring and incident reporting systems

CQC re-inspected The Lawn in July 2016. The care home moved up two scales from ‘Inadequate’ to ‘Good’. The inspector reported:

Care plans had been rewritten and were clear about risks and the care that should be delivered by staff.

People said they felt safe. Staff had received safeguarding training and were able to explain how to protect people from abuse and how to report suspected abuse.

There was a positive and open culture within the home.

Staff said they felt able to raise concerns, and were confident they would be responded to.

Residents and their relatives told the inspector:

Yes, I do feel safe enough, absolutely.

I feel safe and secure here.

I feel happy that there is nothing here to make them feel unsafe.

SCIE worked side by side with residents, staff and management to really get underneath the concerns raised by CQC. We didn’t want this to be a tick-box exercise to simply get a better inspection report – we wanted to embed safeguarding best practice into our culture. SCIE’s expertise has been critical to this. They challenged and supported us in equal measure and as a result staff are better informed, supported and more confident – and more importantly the people who use our services are noticing the difference too. SCIE’s flexible approach has been vital – and we are delighted that they are continuing to provide us with ongoing safeguarding advice through a dedicated Safeguarding Concerns Helpline and an annual safeguarding review. Their continued support is helping the charity to embed safeguarding positively and constructively as a ‘golden thread’ in everything we do.

Care home provider, HC-One, commissioned SCIE to conduct an independent evaluation of their development programme for their senior carers to become nursing assistants.

As part of a strategic transformation of its services, HC-One developed the new role of nursing assistant in order to retain high-performing staff and improve the quality of care. The nursing assistant is a new intermediate role that sits between the senior carer and the qualified nurse. It provides a new opportunity for senior carers to grow their skills, responsibility and pay, while reducing the pressure on nursing staff.

HC-One provides an assessment and training package to support applicants in making the transition to becoming nursing assistants – called the Care Assistant Development Programme.

The aim of SCIE’s review was to:

evaluate the short-term impact of the Care Assistant Development Programme (CAPD) on the quality and consistency of care

inform the development, implementation and ongoing evaluation of the Programme

validate the programme against national good practice markers for the delivery of safe and good care.

Our methodology included qualitative and quantitative research, action research with selected sites and stakeholders, and reviews of key resources. It involved:

The Care Assistant Development Programme is an enterprising scheme to release the ambition and increase the skills of kind, caring staff. SCIE grasped the potential of this immediately and developed their evaluation in a dynamic and constructive way. This really is promoting social care excellence and I commend their capacity for active, critical friend evaluations

John Ransford, Non-Executive Director at HC-One

Right at Home – Policies and Procedures review Open

We reviewed and updated almost 25 policies ranging from governance, safeguarding and record keeping, to recruitment and learning and development. We ensured that their Policies and Procedures not only met legislative and regulatory requirements, but also followed recognised best practice across the sector and ensured that Right at Home retained their internal processes and procedures.

As an industry leading provider of homecare we must ensure that all of our Policies and Procedures are industry leading; and meet the legislative and regulatory requirements. Working with SCIE has supported us in developing high quality internal processes and procedures. The knowledge, experience and guidance from our consultant at SCIE has proven invaluable. We are now superbly confident that our organisations policies and procedures are clear, concise and manageable for all of our teams.